I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 211 Kidnapping
When Zhao Zhenji realized he had been found out, he gave an embarrassed smile.

Lin Shisan asked proactively, "Is it that Grand Secretary Xu wants Fang Youshan?"

Zhao Zhenji said, "No matter who wants this fellow, as long as you hand him over to me, someone will naturally promote you to be the commander of the guards of the Prince Yu's mansion."

"Isn't being the Crown Prince's bodyguard much better than being a lazy official in the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Nanjing?"

Lin Shisan thought to himself: Ha, Xu Jie really knows how to play the abacus. The abacus beads are practically hitting someone's face.

If Fang Youshan were handed over to him, he would first try to appease the situation and tacitly approve the Yan faction's disbandment of the Qi and Yu departments.

In this way, Hu Zongxian's years of painstaking efforts in the southeast will be ruined, the Japanese pirates will continue to run rampant, and the powerful families of Jiangnan will continue to make a fortune from smuggling.

When the time is right, Xu Jie will use Fang Youshan to reveal the truth about the Zhenwu Camp mutiny, completely destroy the Yan family, and take their place as the Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that Lin Shisan remained silent, Zhao Zhenji said, "If you don't want a high position, you can have money. Name a number."

Lin Shisan said, "I don't want a high position, and I don't want money either."

Zhao Zhenji frowned: "Oh? Then what do you want?"

Lin Shisan replied, "Conscience."

Zhao Zhenji was taken aback: "You want to kill Fang Youshan to cover up the Yan family's crimes?"

This is actually a result that Xu Dang could accept.

With Fang Youshan dead, the true cause of the mutiny could not be ascertained. Although the Yan faction could not be overthrown, at least the smuggling business in the southeast could be preserved.

Lin Shisan did not answer.

Zhao Zhenji said, "Whether you hand over the person or not, I hope you understand that I am just a messenger. It is not that I want Fang Youshan."

"Six days ago, I received devastating news from my family. My father passed away. I am currently handling the handover with my deputy. After the handover is completed, I will return to my hometown to observe the mourning period."

"I have no interest in the intrigues and conflicts within the court. I only wish to return to my hometown as soon as possible and be a dutiful son. That's all."

As expected of Sanbuzhan, he pushed the blame for demanding Lin Shisan's release onto Xu Jie.

Upon hearing this, Lin Shisan cupped his hands and said, "Ah, Minister Zhao, please accept my condolences!"

Zhao Zhenji stood up: "Alright. If you are unwilling to hand over the person, I will simply report the truth to Grand Secretary Xu. Farewell."

In fact, Zhao Zhenji did not expect that Lin Shisan, a mere commander, would be determined to be an enemy of the entire Yan Party.

After Zhao Zhenji left, Yang Jinshui came to Lin Shisan and asked, "Is Sanbuzhan gone?"

Lin Shisan nodded: "He's gone. His father passed away, and he said he was going back to Sichuan to observe mourning. Our Minister Zhao, oh..."

Zhao Zhenji is a complex person.

Born in Sichuan, Zhao Zhenji was a child prodigy renowned throughout the surrounding area from a young age. At the age of fifteen, he read Wang Shouren's "Instructions for Practical Living" and became a disciple of the School of Mind.

At the age of nineteen, he began practicing Buddhism at Prajna Temple while still keeping his hair, calling himself Dongjin Daoren. He planned to dedicate his life to studying Buddhism, the philosophy of mind, and the I Ching.

At the age of twenty-one, under the threat of suicide from his father, he reluctantly left the Prajna Temple and went to Chengdu to participate in the provincial examination.

Despite his half-hearted attitude during the exam, he ultimately ranked fourth and became a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial-level imperial examinations).

The year after Zhao Zhenji passed the imperial examination, his mother passed away. His spiritual mentor, Wang Yangming, also passed away.

Feeling that life was illusory, Zhao Zhenji once again practiced Buddhism in the temple with his hair still intact, spending six years with Buddhist lamps and ancient scrolls as his companions.

At the age of twenty-eight, his father again threatened suicide to force him to go to the capital to take the imperial examination. Zhao Zhenji reluctantly entered the examination hall once more and passed the exam.

On the day of the imperial examination, Emperor Jiajing asked the candidates to analyze Jia Rang's theory on river management and derive a solution for river management in the present day.

This is considered an off-topic in policy discussion.

Of the three hundred candidates, only about thirty had read Jia Rang's "Three Strategies for River Management," and their answers were relevant to the topic. The rest simply rambled on, piecing together flowery phrases.

Among these thirty-odd well-read people, Zhao Zhenji was naturally included.

The ministers who had prepared for the palace examination had originally designated Zhao Zhenji as the second-ranked candidate in the first class. However, the Jiajing Emperor praised Zhao Zhenji's answer as "straightforward" and placed him second in the second class.

There are only three people in the top three. The second place in the second-ranked class is equivalent to fifth place on the gold list. This is already a ranking that is incredibly auspicious.

Having just passed the imperial examination and become an official, he submitted a memorial requesting the cessation of the construction of the three palaces, in which he vehemently criticized the powerful minister Yan Song.

Three years later, Zhao Zhenji submitted another memorial criticizing the Jiajing Emperor for being obsessed with Taoist cultivation and seeking immortality, thus becoming a predecessor to Hai Rui. After submitting the memorial, he requested to return to his hometown to continue his studies.

The Jiajing Emperor, going along with the flow, said: "I won't kill you, just get out of here."

He was not reinstated until he was thirty-four years old. He was given a difficult task: to be sent as an envoy to the Northwest.

His official career was not very successful after that; after fifteen years in office, he only rose to the rank of Director of Studies at the Imperial Academy, a position of the sixth rank. The reason for this was his "uprightness."

In the twenty-ninth year of the Jiajing reign (1550), the Gengxu Incident occurred. Tatar troops besieged the capital.

Minister of War Ding Rukui proposed abandoning the outer city. Zhao Zhenji, a sixth-rank civil official, argued against the imperial court's summer officials, saying that if the outer city fell, the capital would fall, and the Ming Dynasty would perish.

He was forty-two years old at the time.

On that night when the enemy was at the gates, Zhao Zhenji, a sixth-rank civil official, donned armor and climbed the city wall at Xizhimen. He remained in his armor for three days.

To defend against a Tatar attack, he even became a military inventor. He ordered people to put gunpowder into earthenware jars and bury them under the city walls.

On a side note, it is said that the "self-propelled steel wheel fire" invented by Qi Jiguang when he was stationed in Jizhou was the ancestor of landmines.

Little did people know that the "self-propelled steel wheel fire" was an improvement made by Qi Jiguang from the gunpowder pottery jar invented by Zhao Zhenji.

During the Gengxu Incident, Zhao Zhenji was a loyal and brave man, a model civil official.

Because of his heroic actions at Xizhimen, Zhao Zhenji gained the favor of the Jiajing Emperor, and his official position rose higher and higher.

At the same time, the officialdom is like a millstone, smoothing out his edges and crushing his "straightforwardness" to dust.

Over the next decade or so, Zhao Zhenji experienced ups and downs in his official career, rising through the ranks, but gradually becoming someone who "didn't touch three things."

Zhao Zhenji failed to get the person from Lin Shisan and prepared to return to his hometown.

As an aside, years later, someone will reignite the integrity buried deep within Zhao Zhenji's heart, making him a pioneer in the Ming Dynasty's new policies.

That person's name was Zhang Juzheng
Inside the town hall, Lin Shisan presented Fang Youshan's confession to Yang Jinshui.

Such secrets should not be easily revealed to others.

Lin Shisan's calculations were as follows: Yang Jinshui was his uncle's confidant and the highest-ranking member of the eunuch organization "Black Mountain Society" in the southeast.

By revealing the reasons for the coup, I will offend both the Yan faction and the Xu faction. But at least I need the eunuch faction to be my backer. Only then will I have a glimmer of hope.

After reading the confession, Yang Jinshui was shocked and stammered, "The Yan family, the Grand Secretary and his son, actually instigated a coup to preserve their power?"

"If you want to target Qi and Yu, why go through all this trouble? This is an unforgivable crime of treason."

Lin Shisan said, "Last year, His Majesty investigated and punished a bunch of Yan Song's faction officials in the border towns, and also dismissed Zhao Wenhua, a member of Yan Song's faction, causing him to die of shock after clutching his abdomen. Yan Song's faction is desperate." Yang Jinshui took a sip of tea to calm himself down, "There is another possibility. Yan Song was unaware of this matter. It was the young Grand Secretary and Luo Longwen who acted on their own."

Yang Jinshui had indeed spent over twenty years more in the palace than Lin Shisan. He was right after all.

In the study of Yan Song's residence in the capital city.

Yan Shifan knelt down before Yan Song.

Yan Song's cane rained down on Yan Shifan: "Fool! Fool!"

Yan Shifan repeatedly said, "Father, please calm down. Let me handle the matter of you hitting me. You are getting old and can't take it."

"Bang!" Yan Song slammed his cane to the ground: "I really want to cripple your other leg too!"

"You, Luo Longwen, Ouyang Bijin, Wan Cai, Fang Xiang, and those other people actually joined forces to deceive me! Don't you realize that I have friends and acquaintances in Nanjing?"

"You can fool me for half a month, but can you fool me for a lifetime?"

"Now look what's happened! The joint memorial has been submitted. My name, as the Grand Secretary, is listed first! I knew you, you self-righteous and rebellious son, wouldn't let me have a peaceful end."

Yan Shifan said, "Father, what's done is done. What's done is done. Originally, His Majesty sent Lin Shisan to thoroughly investigate the mutiny. I thought he was one of our own and could help us cover it up."

"I never expected Luo Longwen to send a letter saying that Lin Shisan had betrayed us and arrested Fang Youshan."

Yan Song angrily said, "I warned you long ago to leave some room for maneuver when you make friends. You didn't listen. How are you going to clean up this mess now? Luckily, I had the foresight to have you find me a distant nephew from my hometown to be my burial son."

Yan Shifan quickly said, "Father, in my opinion, Lin Shisan is just a weather vane. As long as there is a strong wind blowing him, he will turn to us again."

Yan Song asked, "What wind?"

Yan Shifan lowered his voice: "A kidnapping case occurred in the capital today. The kidnapped person is Lin Youniu, the owner of the Fuyuan Ice Cellar in Goujihu Alley in the South City—Lin Shisan's father."

“His father’s life is in our hands, we’re not afraid he won’t comply.”

Yan Song said coldly, "You've kidnapped the father of the imperial envoy who was handling the case again? Keep doing whatever you want. Sooner or later, I'll die at your hands."

The eunuch in charge of the Eastern Depot was on duty.

Lü Fang sat silently. Huang Jin was furious and was cursing Lu Yi, Zhu Xixiao, and other officials of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, as well as the chief executioners and officers of the Eastern Depot.

Huang Jin angrily said, "Lin Shisan is handling an important case in Nanjing. How could you not have thought that someone might target his father? You should have at least sent a few people to protect Lin's father!"

"A bunch of idiots! They spend all day bragging about how they were doing as undercover agents in the Tatars, how they participated in suppressing rebellions in the Northwest, and how they handled imperial cases in the capital."

"You're all brainless! If anything happens to Old Master Lin, I'll make sure you all die with him!"

Lu Yi, Zhu Xixiao, and the others wore expressions of profound grief.

Huang Jin cursed again: "If Commander Lu hadn't fallen seriously ill and was in charge of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, this kind of trouble would never have happened!"

Lu Fang said from the side, "That's enough, stop cursing. Listen to everyone. All personnel from the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, put aside all current cases and immediately search for and rescue Lin You Niu."

"The cases Lin Shisan handled in Nanjing are incredibly powerful! If he is kidnapped and threatened because of his father, you should know the consequences."

Two days later, the message from the capital city was delivered to the Nanjing garrison headquarters via carrier pigeons that had traveled through four stations.

In the past two days, based on Fang Youshan's confession, Lin Shisan arrested more than thirty lower-ranking military officers who led the mutiny in the Zhenwu Battalion. He obtained a nearly complete confession.

Lin Shisan walked out of the interrogation room and stretched.

Yang Jinshui walked quickly toward him.

Lin Shisan said, "Eunuch Yang, the case is almost over. The confessions can be sent to the capital immediately. Also, we need to find a proper way to secretly escort Fang Youshan and those leading soldiers to the capital. They are both criminals and witnesses."

Yang Jinshui hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Lin Shisan asked, "Eunuch Yang, what happened?"

Yang Jinshui lowered his voice: "Your father has been kidnapped."

After saying that, he handed the message sent by carrier pigeon from the capital to Lin Shisan.

Lin Shisan was stunned after reading it: "They're threatening me with my father?"

Yang Jinshui sighed, "Alas, loyalty and filial piety have always been difficult to reconcile. You must decide for yourself."

Lin Shisan slapped himself hard, cursing inwardly: I was careless! It's all my fault! I was so busy handling the case in Nanjing that I forgot to send a letter to Eunuch Lü, the young manager, and Zhu Weitang in the capital, asking them to protect my father!
If I had given them a heads-up beforehand, my father wouldn't have been kidnapped.

Just then, a minor official from the town government delivered an invitation—Luo Longwen was hosting a banquet for Lin Shisan at the Huizhou Merchants' Guild Hall.

Yang Jinshui glanced at the invitation and said, "You can't go to the Huizhou Merchants' Guild Hall. That's Luo Longwen's territory. This is a trap!"

"This group of people dares to incite a mutiny, so it goes without saying that they would harm the imperial envoy."

"Listen to my advice on this matter. You may attend the banquet, but the location must be different. Let's have it at the town governor's mansion! I will accompany you."

"Hmph. The confession is complete. I'm about to take down Luo Longwen, one of the ringleaders of the mutiny!"

Lin Shisan said, "Eunuch Yang, we're afraid that the Huizhou Merchants' Guild Hall is a trap. Luo Longwen is also afraid that the Town Supervisor's Office is a trap."

"Luo Longwen and I will inevitably have a showdown sooner or later. This banquet is the arena."

"Why not set up the arena on a pleasure boat on the Qinhuai River?"

Yang Jinshui thought for a moment and said, "Let's do as you say. I'll go and make the preparations. First, I'll have someone secretly protect you, and second, I'll have someone arrest Luo Longwen on the spot."

That night, the hundreds of pleasure boats on the Qinhuai River seemed to vanish into thin air. Only one pleasure boat remained, all alone at the dock. And on that boat, there were no girls, madams, teapots, or cooks. Only four young servants, around ten years old, rowed the boat.

The flower boats slowly sailed out of the dock and arrived in the middle of the Qinhuai River.

Lin Shisan and Luo Longwen sat facing each other in the tea room on the second floor.

Luo Longwen said, "The town government ordered all pleasure boats to close for the day this afternoon. There are no more girls and customers on the Qinhuai River. But there are still quite a few vendors selling things on the banks."

"Weren't those vendors all people from the Military Command in disguise?"

"You're still too green to try and trap me, little brother."

Lin Shisan and Luo Longwen always shared a genuine brotherly bond. Not to mention, Luo Longwen had saved Lin Shisan's life back then.

Lin Shisan pleaded with him, "Second Brother, stop! Surrender and submit to the law, expose the Grand Secretary and his son. I will ask Eunuch Lü and Governor Lu to save your life before the Emperor."

Luo Longwen sneered: "Ha, do you really think that a nobody like you can capsize the Yan Party's big ship?"

"I ask you, now that Yan's faction has fallen, who will the Emperor use to check and balance those 'moral gentlemen' in the court?"

Lin Shisan replied, "How His Majesty deals with Yan's faction is His Majesty's business. It is my business to report this matter truthfully."

Luo Longwen smiled sinisterly: "You should know that your father has been kidnapped, right?"

"What, you're abandoning your own father to be a loyal subject?"

(End of this chapter)